This invention relates to an improved reel or cylinder type cutterhead for a cut-and-throw type forage harvester.
As is well known, a cut-and-throw type forage harvester conventionally utilizes a cylinder type cutterhead, which reduces the crop as it is fed radially inwardly to the cutterhead over a shear bar and then propels the reduced crop upwardly through a tangential outlet. The outlet, of course, spans the width of the cutterhead and conventionally communicates with a discharge chute, the lower end of which has upwardly converging side walls so that the crop is narrowed into a stream that is substantially narrower than the width of the cutterhead, the momentum of the crop carrying it upwardly and then rearwardly through an arcuate discharge spout or upper chute portion for discharging into a trailing vehicle. A forage harvester of the above general type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,452,796, also assigned to the assignee herein. The cut-and-throw type machine is obviously more economical than a machine that utilizes a separate blower for impelling the reduced crop through the discharge spout, although in certain crops and crop conditions, there is sometimes a problem in providing sufficient momentum for the reduced crop by means of the cutterhead to adequately discharge it into the collecting vehicle. This problem is complicated by the fact that the crop material must necessarily impinge on the converging side walls of the lower end of the discharge chute, which reduces the momentum of the crop material.